It is 2AM, and I am struggling to grasp the idea that, TODAY, I will be embarking on a 72-hr trip around the world to Malawi, Africa. For 5weeks, I will be collecting data and meeting with local officials and members of communities surrounding Lilongwe making arrangements to start a program that will bring disadvantaged youth from America to Africa to carry service projects in a cross-cultural environment (www.revivingourcommunities.org).
I am writing you to ask you to JOIN ME in this adventure. One of thethings that I wish I had done my last trip to Africa was to really document my experiences and share them with others. This blog I havearranged is not for me to boast about my travels nor share my vacation experiences. This blog will be one that carries much more meaning. Ibelieve that there are people who need their stories to be heard, and Ipray that I can be a vessel for my neighbors in Africa. And I pray that my experiences and their stories will inspire others to act and do God'swork.
In about 8 hours I will begin what end up being a 72hr trip from Chapel Hill, NC to Lilongwe, Malawi. Starting at RDU, I will be flying an hour and a half to Atlanta and staying there for 5 hours before my 9-hour flight to Amsterdam, arriving there on Tuesday. Several hours later I will be catching another 9-10hour flight from Europe to Niarobi, Kenya. After an overnight stay in the airport, my 2-hour morning flight from Kenya will finally bring me to my final destination at the Lilongwe airport Wednesday morning. To you this may sound like minor details, but for me, I will feel the brunt of these small details.I will let you know how it goes as soon as I can reach a computer. Stay tuned!!!
Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts
Monday, 18 June 2007
Friday, 8 June 2007
Africa Fails To Meet AIDS Goals
Not a single country in sub-Saharan Africa is on target to meet U.N. goals of cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring universal primary education, and stemming the AIDS pandemic by 2015, a new U.N. report says.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to ask leaders of the world's richest countries meeting in Germany this week to step up aid to Africa so the targets can be achieved.
"Despite faster growth and strengthened institutions, the continent remains off track to meeting the world's shared goals for fighting poverty in all its forms," Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told a news conference launching the report.
While the proportion of people living on $1 a day has declined from 45.9 percent to 41.1 percent since 1999, the report said reaching the target of halving extreme poverty by 2015 requires that the current pace is nearly doubled.
Net aid to sub-Saharan Africa has increased by only 2 percent in real terms since 2005, Migiro said, excluding Nigeria, which received exceptional debt relief this year. The report said donors need to accelerate their plans to scale up assistance to maintain the credibility of their 2005 pledge to double aid to Africa by 2010.
"The upcoming G-8 summit provides an important opportunity for donor countries to lay out concrete timetables for how they will increase development assistance to each African country through to 2010 and 2015," she said.
The U.N. report, released at the midway point between the adoption of the goals by world leaders at a summit in 2000 and the 2015 target date, showed some progress in getting more youngsters to go to school but little progress on goals to reduce child and maternal mortality and halt the AIDS pandemic.
Some sub-Saharan African countries have increased primary school enrollment from 57 percent in 1999 to 70 percent in 2005, even with a rapid population growth. But Migiro said "more investments in the sector are needed to meet the goal of primary education" for all children.
According to the new U.N. statistics, child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa have fallen only marginally from 185 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 116 per 1,000 live births in 2005.
A woman in Africa has a one in 16 chance of dying in childbirth or from complications in pregnancy, compared to the likelihood of one in 3,800 of dying in developed countries, she said.
The report also said the number of people dying from AIDS continues to mount, reaching 2 million in 2006 in sub-Saharan Africa. New HIV cases are rising faster than the rate at which new treatment is being offered, it said.
Despite the slow pace in meeting the U.N. goals, Migiro said that important lessons can be taken from countries in Africa that are showing progress.
Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have increased primary school enrollment, the report said. It also said that Senegal and Uganda have better access to water and improved sanitation, and agricultural productivity has increased in Malawi.
"If Malawi can do it, so can all of sub-Saharan Africa," said Guido Schmidt-Traub, head of a team at the U.N. Development Program promoting implementation of the goals. "Clearly this isn't happening, and I think finances are a clear constraint at least in those countries that have met their side of the bargain."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to ask leaders of the world's richest countries meeting in Germany this week to step up aid to Africa so the targets can be achieved.
"Despite faster growth and strengthened institutions, the continent remains off track to meeting the world's shared goals for fighting poverty in all its forms," Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told a news conference launching the report.
While the proportion of people living on $1 a day has declined from 45.9 percent to 41.1 percent since 1999, the report said reaching the target of halving extreme poverty by 2015 requires that the current pace is nearly doubled.
Net aid to sub-Saharan Africa has increased by only 2 percent in real terms since 2005, Migiro said, excluding Nigeria, which received exceptional debt relief this year. The report said donors need to accelerate their plans to scale up assistance to maintain the credibility of their 2005 pledge to double aid to Africa by 2010.
"The upcoming G-8 summit provides an important opportunity for donor countries to lay out concrete timetables for how they will increase development assistance to each African country through to 2010 and 2015," she said.
The U.N. report, released at the midway point between the adoption of the goals by world leaders at a summit in 2000 and the 2015 target date, showed some progress in getting more youngsters to go to school but little progress on goals to reduce child and maternal mortality and halt the AIDS pandemic.
Some sub-Saharan African countries have increased primary school enrollment from 57 percent in 1999 to 70 percent in 2005, even with a rapid population growth. But Migiro said "more investments in the sector are needed to meet the goal of primary education" for all children.
According to the new U.N. statistics, child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa have fallen only marginally from 185 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 116 per 1,000 live births in 2005.
A woman in Africa has a one in 16 chance of dying in childbirth or from complications in pregnancy, compared to the likelihood of one in 3,800 of dying in developed countries, she said.
The report also said the number of people dying from AIDS continues to mount, reaching 2 million in 2006 in sub-Saharan Africa. New HIV cases are rising faster than the rate at which new treatment is being offered, it said.
Despite the slow pace in meeting the U.N. goals, Migiro said that important lessons can be taken from countries in Africa that are showing progress.
Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have increased primary school enrollment, the report said. It also said that Senegal and Uganda have better access to water and improved sanitation, and agricultural productivity has increased in Malawi.
"If Malawi can do it, so can all of sub-Saharan Africa," said Guido Schmidt-Traub, head of a team at the U.N. Development Program promoting implementation of the goals. "Clearly this isn't happening, and I think finances are a clear constraint at least in those countries that have met their side of the bargain."
Monday, 28 May 2007
The plight of Malawi's child brides
Innat Edson didn't think it would end this way. Last year, she was making wedding plans. Now, at just 15, she is back at her mother's cramped, dingy house, nursing a fussing baby her former fiancé refuses to acknowledge is his.
Here, and in isolated villages and crumbling cities across the most destitute continent, girls younger than 14 are finding boyfriends and getting married in a bid to escape the empty bellies, numbing work and overwhelming tedium of poverty.
Encouraged by their parents, many marry much older men who they hope can give them a better life. Often, they are disappointed.
"Poverty is the cancer in our society," says Joyce Banda, Malawi's Minister of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services. "More girls are marrying young -- not out of choice, but because they have no choice."
No figures are available because such marriages usually happen in secret. Banda and some aid groups, though, assert they are becoming more common, citing anecdotal evidence.
The legal age for marriage is 16 in Malawi, but girls as young as 14 can marry with their parents' consent. The government is proposing increasing this minimum to 18, but has had little luck enforcing its existing laws. Some elders see nothing wrong with allowing an 11-year-old to wed a man in his 30s.
"When they are exposed, we find that the young girls are so brainwashed they don't see anything wrong, and their parents are willing participants," Banda says.
Early marriage takes girls out of school and forces them into motherhood before they are biologically ready, contributing to some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. About 1 800 mothers died for every 100 000 deliveries in 2003, the last year for which figures are available. The practice can also expose girls to HIV/Aids before they are equipped to protect themselves.
The deadly pandemic has left thousands of Malawian children to fend for themselves in a country gripped by perpetual food shortages.
Innat's mother has been in and out of hospital for three years with an illness the family does not name. Her father drinks heavily and provides little for his six children. Innat dropped out of school in 7th grade to work as a maid in Blantyre -- a three-hour walk down a winding, rutted road. But the job didn't pay much, and she continued to struggle.
"I had no money to buy soap or lotion for my body, so I thought the only way was to find a boyfriend to take care of my needs," explains the sad, wide-eyed girl.
Her 13-year-old sister, Isme, escaped home by marrying a painter. So when a young man from their village proposed, Innat thought her problems were solved. When she fell pregnant, he deserted her.
Soon after, a trader came looking to buy charcoal. He too proposed, and she agreed. "I was just thinking about my baby," she says.
Eventually, however, the man returned to the city.
"He said he would come back for me," she says, her eyes welling up, "but he never did." Some 30 to 40 girls drop out every year from the local primary school, where English lessons are taught on a blackboard nailed to a tree. Some leave to help at home, but most get married, says deputy headmaster James Kampira.
Primary school is free, but high school costs around 3 500 kwacha (about $27) a term -- more than many families earn a month.
If there is a choice, they usually give the extra schooling to sons. Just 15% of Malawian girls finish high school, compared with 26% of boys, according to government figures.
Some girls are pressed into marriage for the sake of a dowry, or because their parents have too many mouths to feed. But many enter willingly into unions that give them a kind of status.
Elube Matebule traded a cracked mud-and-thatch home for a brick house with a tin roof when she married her 22-year-old boyfriend, Edwin, last August.
"Life was difficult at home. There wasn't enough food, there weren't enough clothes, there wasn't enough money. But in marriage, I have those things," says Elube, a shy, giggly girl in a torn, white blouse, who says she is 18, but looks barely 14.
Marriage wasn't quite the escape she'd hoped for. Every day the girl who once dreamed of being a nurse is up at dawn to work in her new family's maize field. In the afternoon, she cooks for her husband, his parents and two brothers. Only then can she relax before the work starts again.
"I am very disappointed," she says, sitting on a step, twisting a blade of grass.
The average age of sexual debut is just 12, according to government research. In a few traditional communities, girls are forced to have sex with older men as part of rites initiating them into adulthood. But most have their first experience with a friend or relative.
Girls who have lost one or both parents to HIV/Aids are especially vulnerable to exploitation. In cities like Blantyre, it is not unusual for them to have several "boyfriends" who support them, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Malawi. This in turn exposes them to the risk of infection with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
Some older men will marry young girls after their wives die of HIV/Aids because they believe sex with a virgin will "cleanse" them, says Banda. It is also traditional in some cultures for a man to marry his wife's younger sister if she dies.
The government and Unicef campaign against such practices and hope raising the legal age for marriage will alert people to the dangers.
Others, however, worry the proposed law will leave pregnant teens without even the option of marriage.
Innat has no idea how to fend for two-month-old Crispin. "I wish I had money so I could raise goats to put him through school," she says wistfully. "I see no future for any of us." -- Sapa-AFP
Here, and in isolated villages and crumbling cities across the most destitute continent, girls younger than 14 are finding boyfriends and getting married in a bid to escape the empty bellies, numbing work and overwhelming tedium of poverty.
Encouraged by their parents, many marry much older men who they hope can give them a better life. Often, they are disappointed.
"Poverty is the cancer in our society," says Joyce Banda, Malawi's Minister of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services. "More girls are marrying young -- not out of choice, but because they have no choice."
No figures are available because such marriages usually happen in secret. Banda and some aid groups, though, assert they are becoming more common, citing anecdotal evidence.
The legal age for marriage is 16 in Malawi, but girls as young as 14 can marry with their parents' consent. The government is proposing increasing this minimum to 18, but has had little luck enforcing its existing laws. Some elders see nothing wrong with allowing an 11-year-old to wed a man in his 30s.
"When they are exposed, we find that the young girls are so brainwashed they don't see anything wrong, and their parents are willing participants," Banda says.
Early marriage takes girls out of school and forces them into motherhood before they are biologically ready, contributing to some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. About 1 800 mothers died for every 100 000 deliveries in 2003, the last year for which figures are available. The practice can also expose girls to HIV/Aids before they are equipped to protect themselves.
The deadly pandemic has left thousands of Malawian children to fend for themselves in a country gripped by perpetual food shortages.
Innat's mother has been in and out of hospital for three years with an illness the family does not name. Her father drinks heavily and provides little for his six children. Innat dropped out of school in 7th grade to work as a maid in Blantyre -- a three-hour walk down a winding, rutted road. But the job didn't pay much, and she continued to struggle.
"I had no money to buy soap or lotion for my body, so I thought the only way was to find a boyfriend to take care of my needs," explains the sad, wide-eyed girl.
Her 13-year-old sister, Isme, escaped home by marrying a painter. So when a young man from their village proposed, Innat thought her problems were solved. When she fell pregnant, he deserted her.
Soon after, a trader came looking to buy charcoal. He too proposed, and she agreed. "I was just thinking about my baby," she says.
Eventually, however, the man returned to the city.
"He said he would come back for me," she says, her eyes welling up, "but he never did." Some 30 to 40 girls drop out every year from the local primary school, where English lessons are taught on a blackboard nailed to a tree. Some leave to help at home, but most get married, says deputy headmaster James Kampira.
Primary school is free, but high school costs around 3 500 kwacha (about $27) a term -- more than many families earn a month.
If there is a choice, they usually give the extra schooling to sons. Just 15% of Malawian girls finish high school, compared with 26% of boys, according to government figures.
Some girls are pressed into marriage for the sake of a dowry, or because their parents have too many mouths to feed. But many enter willingly into unions that give them a kind of status.
Elube Matebule traded a cracked mud-and-thatch home for a brick house with a tin roof when she married her 22-year-old boyfriend, Edwin, last August.
"Life was difficult at home. There wasn't enough food, there weren't enough clothes, there wasn't enough money. But in marriage, I have those things," says Elube, a shy, giggly girl in a torn, white blouse, who says she is 18, but looks barely 14.
Marriage wasn't quite the escape she'd hoped for. Every day the girl who once dreamed of being a nurse is up at dawn to work in her new family's maize field. In the afternoon, she cooks for her husband, his parents and two brothers. Only then can she relax before the work starts again.
"I am very disappointed," she says, sitting on a step, twisting a blade of grass.
The average age of sexual debut is just 12, according to government research. In a few traditional communities, girls are forced to have sex with older men as part of rites initiating them into adulthood. But most have their first experience with a friend or relative.
Girls who have lost one or both parents to HIV/Aids are especially vulnerable to exploitation. In cities like Blantyre, it is not unusual for them to have several "boyfriends" who support them, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Malawi. This in turn exposes them to the risk of infection with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
Some older men will marry young girls after their wives die of HIV/Aids because they believe sex with a virgin will "cleanse" them, says Banda. It is also traditional in some cultures for a man to marry his wife's younger sister if she dies.
The government and Unicef campaign against such practices and hope raising the legal age for marriage will alert people to the dangers.
Others, however, worry the proposed law will leave pregnant teens without even the option of marriage.
Innat has no idea how to fend for two-month-old Crispin. "I wish I had money so I could raise goats to put him through school," she says wistfully. "I see no future for any of us." -- Sapa-AFP
Monday, 9 April 2007
'That's about what our household earns per week'
I had to look up 'Malawi" in Wikipedia. The entry told me that the country of Malawi was born a month after I was, November 1962. If you are unfamiliar with the realities of poverty in small countries, I recommend your brace yourself before reading further in the article. Here a few hints. Malawi's exports value only $596 US dollars per person, per year. That's about what our household earns per week. And according to a 2005 Food and Agriculture Organization report 25% of the population would not have enough food to survive that year. Being who I am, I am appreciative to have learned this sad stuff about Malawi, but I am unable to spend more time at this moment learning more.
So I move on to a more optimistic sector of information, the music of Malawi. I find out something fascinatingly unexpected. "Malawians have long been travellers, and as a result their music has spread across the African continent" And that in the late 1960s Malawi had its own form of jazz which "has little in common with its American namesake" based on traditional acoustic music. These days there is a folkfusionist group from Malawi called Pamtondo, (site heading is 'Where a little of Malawi meets the world in Scotland')
Pamtondo refers to women at the mortar pounding flour, and a wonderful painting or mural of this is HERE. After reading about the famine in Malawi, the name of the group has even more resonance. And then I read this ARTICLE about the meaning of the music and its connection to women by John Lwanda. GREAT article. Please read it if you are at all interested in African jazz.
Then I decided since I was 'there' I'd learn more about that area of Scotland (Bothwell). I had learned (in the Wiki article) that the first European in Malawi had been Dr. David Livingstone. And here on the Pamtondo site I learn that John Lwanda lives across the river from Dr. David Livingstone's birthplace. Small small world indeed.
On the Pamtondo website they mention "the famous Tunnocks Bakery"in Uddingston so of course, being hungry for breakfast, I had to find out what they are famous for. Ah! they are famous for Tunnocks Tea Cakes and Caramel Wafers. Hmm. Maybe our local Hillers carries them. I'll check next time I'm there. But wait! Someone has said (on a site about Strathclyde's best bakeries) that Tunnocks makes "the best Scotch Pies ever".
What is a Scotch Pie?
You know, I found a recipe for Scotch pie on a site called rampantscotland.com (love the name)
It seems to be a sort of mutton or lamb pie (source of the endearment 'Lambie Pie'?)
here is a link to the SCOTCH PIE recipe
And now to explore Rampant Scotland dot com
Hmm. This may take a while. their header says
13,000+ Scottish-related Links, regularly updated. 3,700 Web page features on Scotland and the Scots.
I'd better get some breakfast first.
So I move on to a more optimistic sector of information, the music of Malawi. I find out something fascinatingly unexpected. "Malawians have long been travellers, and as a result their music has spread across the African continent" And that in the late 1960s Malawi had its own form of jazz which "has little in common with its American namesake" based on traditional acoustic music. These days there is a folkfusionist group from Malawi called Pamtondo, (site heading is 'Where a little of Malawi meets the world in Scotland')
Pamtondo refers to women at the mortar pounding flour, and a wonderful painting or mural of this is HERE. After reading about the famine in Malawi, the name of the group has even more resonance. And then I read this ARTICLE about the meaning of the music and its connection to women by John Lwanda. GREAT article. Please read it if you are at all interested in African jazz.
Then I decided since I was 'there' I'd learn more about that area of Scotland (Bothwell). I had learned (in the Wiki article) that the first European in Malawi had been Dr. David Livingstone. And here on the Pamtondo site I learn that John Lwanda lives across the river from Dr. David Livingstone's birthplace. Small small world indeed.
On the Pamtondo website they mention "the famous Tunnocks Bakery"in Uddingston so of course, being hungry for breakfast, I had to find out what they are famous for. Ah! they are famous for Tunnocks Tea Cakes and Caramel Wafers. Hmm. Maybe our local Hillers carries them. I'll check next time I'm there. But wait! Someone has said (on a site about Strathclyde's best bakeries) that Tunnocks makes "the best Scotch Pies ever".
What is a Scotch Pie?
You know, I found a recipe for Scotch pie on a site called rampantscotland.com (love the name)
It seems to be a sort of mutton or lamb pie (source of the endearment 'Lambie Pie'?)
here is a link to the SCOTCH PIE recipe
And now to explore Rampant Scotland dot com
Hmm. This may take a while. their header says
I'd better get some breakfast first.
Thursday, 5 April 2007
'I believe we now have a future'
Malcolm Fleming Oxfam in Scotland |
The end of March marked the end of 17-year-old orphan, Steve Julio's carpentry course at his local college in the Chiradzulu district of southern Malawi.
He is now preparing to start up a small business to provide for himself and his two brothers Davison, 14, and Evance, 12.
It is a huge turnaround in his life since his parents passed away from Aids - his father first in 2001 and his mother in 2004.
I met Steve in southern Malawi earlier this month.
Steve, Davison and Evance were orphaned in 2004
Before travelling I was convinced of the case that Scotland should be giving more practical assistance to what has been described as its 'sister nation'.
The statistics spoke for themselves; life expectancy is dropping and is now just 36, largely because of HIV/Aids.
A total of 65% of rural Malawians live below the poverty line, with 40% attempting to survive on less than 15p a day.
Although statistics can tell a shocking story, it is not until you meet real people struggling to survive against the odds that the deep poverty Malawians face hits home.
Scotland's renewed interest in the country dates from 2005 when the world's politicians and media decamped to Gleneagles to try to 'Make Poverty History'.
One outcome of that summer, when 250,000 people marched through central Edinburgh and millions more wore white wristbands, was Scotland establishing our own international development policy focused mainly on Malawi.
An initial budget of £3m per annum, rising shortly thereafter to £4.5, was an acknowledgement that the Scottish public supported action from our own politicians and that, as some put it, 'there was more than enough poverty to go round'.
As a Scottish taxpayer I had no doubt whatsoever that this was a good use of funds 
Malcolm Fleming
In Malawi I saw for myself some of the good that our infant aid policy has made, and also the need for us to do much more.
I also met Steve Julio and his brothers and learned how Scottish money had changed their lives totally.
As a Scottish taxpayer I had no doubt whatsoever that this was a good use of funds.
In Golden Village, the small hamlet in Chiradzulu where the brothers live, Steve told me about his parents and how he had coped since their death.
The story was one of tragedy but also opportunity.
"When our parents were alive we never really had any challenges in meeting basic needs," said Steve.
'Couldn't concentrate'
"The challenges started when dad died as he was the main breadwinner.
"But still mum tried hard. Working our vegetable garden we grew and sold tomatoes to have a little to keep going."
However in June 2004, Aline Julio also passed away, one of hundreds of thousands of Malawians, and millions of Africans, who have succumbed to the disease.
"Between that January when mum got sick, and June when she died, I couldn't concentrate on school as I had to take care of her and tend the garden," Steve said.
"When she died I felt very sad. I felt like the world had come to an end."
When his mother died Steve was 14-years-old and in the first year of secondary school.
After her death he had to combine school with caring for his brothers and tending the garden to try and bring in an income.
I had wanted to be a lawyer, but that dream died with my mother
Steve Julio
Shortly afterwards the eldest brother had to drop out of school as he had no money to pay the fees.
"I got good grades so felt very sad as I'd done so well at school, but I had no option," he said.
"I had wanted to be a lawyer, but that dream died with my mother."
In February 2006, Oxfam, with the help of the local village development committee, began identifying orphans who still had the potential to continue school.
Using funds from Scotland, Oxfam supported Steve to go to a local vocational college.
"It felt great as I realised I still had an opportunity to do something to get a livelihood and assist my brothers," he said.
When he finished training at the end of March, Oxfam gave him a tool kit and a small loan to start his own small carpentry business.
'A future'
"I will scout for work, pay back the loan and then someone else can benefit from the money," he said.
"I'm very happy and feel that we really have a future."
Part of Steve's course included book-keeping, so he will be able to manage his resources, open a bank account and hopefully be able to pay school fees for his brother.
"Our lives have turned round," he said.
"After mum died we ate one meal a day, now we have three."
And as for the future?
"Well, I think a lot about what I should do," Steve said.
"I keep thinking hard all the time to ensure my brothers are well taken care of. It's not a burden, it's a responsibility."
Steve hopes to be able to pay his brothers' school fees
"I also talk to my brothers about Aids. The disease has destroyed our lives as they were and we need to be very careful."
He said the most important things are food and education.
While I've been talking with Steve, his brothers Davison and Evance have been listening quietly.
I ask them what they think of their brother.
Davison said: "He is a big brother but because of the things he does he has taken the role of our parents."
Earlier this year, with the Scottish elections approaching, Oxfam in Scotland and Oxfam in Malawi called on Scotland's political parties to outline what more they would do to deliver more and better aid for Malawi.
Our argument was that if our politicians warm words were to make a real and lasting difference, Scotland needs to significantly increase our aid budget and ensure it is spent in an effective, sustainable way.
Unachievable ambition
It should be targeted at the poorest and led by Malawian priorities, not Scottish politics.
In Malawi I saw the difference that has been made to people's lives with just a relatively small amount of money, but I also realised just how much more needs to be done.
Hopefully over the next few weeks of the Scottish election campaign our politicians will set out how they will respond that particular challenge.
And maybe, just maybe, someday Steve Julio will realise his dreams and become a lawyer.
It had seemed an unachievable ambition when he first mentioned it.
But by the end of our conversation I wondered whether that dream might just come true one day.
Sunday, 1 April 2007
A couple stories from my trip
From Jaako's blog:
Name: Jaako Polkki
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario, CA
I'm 9 years old. I want to help the children in Malawi. I pay alot of attention to poverty and I want to help them.
Poverty
Hey Guys,The poverty here is incredible, the need here is big. If you have a bike here, you are considered rich. I've bought 5 bikes so far and given 2 of them away already. All of the kids clothes have holes in them and some don't wear clothes and their shoes are not good at all. Not many kids even have shoe's. The have many cuts from falling down. And there are alot of disease here. It's hard to believe. Bye for now. Jaako
Hi everybody, this is Sue, Jaako's mom now. Jaako says it great when he says it is hard to believe. The need here is bigger than I ever imagined. We went to a small market place and handed out some candies and Bags of Hope to the children there and they were just amazed. At 2 other markets we started handing out gum and sweets and we were literally mobbed by the children. We were pushed back against the vehicles by the kids trying to grab the bag and crying Madam or Boy Please!!! Give me some!! It was horrific. All for candy. Every where we go we are asked for money. By all ages, not just the children. The market places are the worst. You try to buy from every one just so they can have a next meal!! I'm coming home with lots of African carvings and bowls!!!! But they all beg you to buy, some have not eaten that day and need a sale. Some of course use that to make the sale. You kind of get to know who is being sincere or not. The Malawians can't lie. If they are smiling big - they are not telling you the truth!!! Please pray for us as we try to help people. The need is so great and our funds are sooooo small in comparison - we hate being the ones to decide who gets and who doesn't. Sometimes God tells ones of us very strongly to buy something so we do. We bought 57 shoes for a small village because they were mostly bare footed there!!! Thanks for your prayers and support and can't wait to come home and share with all of you our pictures and stories. God Bless you!!!! Love, Sue
Thoughts about Malawi
Today we were at Starbucks and we bought a couple snacks and a coffee and a hot chocolate and we were joking around that the hot chocolate cost so much money and it only costs $1.35. So then when we started to think about it more we could have sent two children to school in Malawi and like just think about it, your coffee everyday can send a child to school. Just one little coffee, approximately a dollar can send a child to school and still have $.35 left. And $.65 can just buy a note book and a pencil and their salaries are only about $1.oo a day so they don't have the money to do that. To spend all their money that they get in one day to send their child to school so they just don't educate them. Just a few thoughts to think about. Thank-you very much for supporting me and my trip.Thank-you, Jaako.
Hi, Today I'm gonna talk about some cute little stories about things I saw in Malawi. One time this little boy was looking at us confused because we were white and we were just looking at him and all of a sudden we saw a yellow liquid coming out of his pants. And if you are wondering about what I am talking about, I'm talking about the boy peed. That happened alot to us where we saw little boys pee their pants and all these different kids would walk through it and sit in it and not even care. There were a couple of times where kids would look at us for about 5 minutes and all of a sudden would start crying if we came to them. All the younger kids were really scared that we were white. It made us sad that they felt so scared.I'm really missing being in Malawi. I can't wait until next time and I will write to you again next week. Jaako
Malawi
Hey Guys, Did you know that Malawi is the 2nd poorest country in Africa and 7th in the world? Did you know that in Sub-saharan Africa a child dies every 3 seconds? And Malawi is right in Sub-saharan Africa. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have HIV/Aids it's not very pleasant. Did you know that almost every child has lost one or both of there parents? They usually live with there grandparents if they have any. Not very many adults make it past the age of 37 or 38. And 43% of the children don't make it to the age of 5. That's why I really want to help these children. And I really want to help them with what they need. And just buy them what they want and just bless that country. They have such severe pain. I'm just so excited to go and help them. We are so lucky to live in Canada where there is medicine to help with all these diseases.Bye for now. Jaako
Name: Jaako Polkki
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario, CA
I'm 9 years old. I want to help the children in Malawi. I pay alot of attention to poverty and I want to help them.
Poverty
Hey Guys,The poverty here is incredible, the need here is big. If you have a bike here, you are considered rich. I've bought 5 bikes so far and given 2 of them away already. All of the kids clothes have holes in them and some don't wear clothes and their shoes are not good at all. Not many kids even have shoe's. The have many cuts from falling down. And there are alot of disease here. It's hard to believe. Bye for now. Jaako
Hi everybody, this is Sue, Jaako's mom now. Jaako says it great when he says it is hard to believe. The need here is bigger than I ever imagined. We went to a small market place and handed out some candies and Bags of Hope to the children there and they were just amazed. At 2 other markets we started handing out gum and sweets and we were literally mobbed by the children. We were pushed back against the vehicles by the kids trying to grab the bag and crying Madam or Boy Please!!! Give me some!! It was horrific. All for candy. Every where we go we are asked for money. By all ages, not just the children. The market places are the worst. You try to buy from every one just so they can have a next meal!! I'm coming home with lots of African carvings and bowls!!!! But they all beg you to buy, some have not eaten that day and need a sale. Some of course use that to make the sale. You kind of get to know who is being sincere or not. The Malawians can't lie. If they are smiling big - they are not telling you the truth!!! Please pray for us as we try to help people. The need is so great and our funds are sooooo small in comparison - we hate being the ones to decide who gets and who doesn't. Sometimes God tells ones of us very strongly to buy something so we do. We bought 57 shoes for a small village because they were mostly bare footed there!!! Thanks for your prayers and support and can't wait to come home and share with all of you our pictures and stories. God Bless you!!!! Love, Sue
Thoughts about Malawi
Today we were at Starbucks and we bought a couple snacks and a coffee and a hot chocolate and we were joking around that the hot chocolate cost so much money and it only costs $1.35. So then when we started to think about it more we could have sent two children to school in Malawi and like just think about it, your coffee everyday can send a child to school. Just one little coffee, approximately a dollar can send a child to school and still have $.35 left. And $.65 can just buy a note book and a pencil and their salaries are only about $1.oo a day so they don't have the money to do that. To spend all their money that they get in one day to send their child to school so they just don't educate them. Just a few thoughts to think about. Thank-you very much for supporting me and my trip.Thank-you, Jaako.
Hi, Today I'm gonna talk about some cute little stories about things I saw in Malawi. One time this little boy was looking at us confused because we were white and we were just looking at him and all of a sudden we saw a yellow liquid coming out of his pants. And if you are wondering about what I am talking about, I'm talking about the boy peed. That happened alot to us where we saw little boys pee their pants and all these different kids would walk through it and sit in it and not even care. There were a couple of times where kids would look at us for about 5 minutes and all of a sudden would start crying if we came to them. All the younger kids were really scared that we were white. It made us sad that they felt so scared.I'm really missing being in Malawi. I can't wait until next time and I will write to you again next week. Jaako
Malawi
Hey Guys, Did you know that Malawi is the 2nd poorest country in Africa and 7th in the world? Did you know that in Sub-saharan Africa a child dies every 3 seconds? And Malawi is right in Sub-saharan Africa. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have HIV/Aids it's not very pleasant. Did you know that almost every child has lost one or both of there parents? They usually live with there grandparents if they have any. Not very many adults make it past the age of 37 or 38. And 43% of the children don't make it to the age of 5. That's why I really want to help these children. And I really want to help them with what they need. And just buy them what they want and just bless that country. They have such severe pain. I'm just so excited to go and help them. We are so lucky to live in Canada where there is medicine to help with all these diseases.Bye for now. Jaako
A Difficult Journey
James, 12, lives with his mum in a small room in Blantyre, the biggest city in Malawi (southeastern Africa). His mum never went to school and can’t get a good job. When James’s parents split up, there was no money for food or school fees. James was so hungry and sad he eventually ran away to live on the streets. “It was dangerous and I was threatened with knives. I remember asking myself, why am I sleeping on the streets when all my friends can go to school?”James survived doing jobs like selling plastic bags. “Sometimes I’d beg outside the supermarket but I’d bump into people I knew. I felt so embarrassed, I’d hide.”Thanks to the UK’s Red Nose Day charity, an international relief agency, James is now back at home and his school fees are paid by a local project. “I’m happy now. My favorite subject is English. I’m the class captain.” James has taken up gardening too—thanks to the project—and grows vegetables to eat and sell. “It’s good exercise and means we can buy things we need, like soap.”Charities like Red Nose Day help thousands of children in poor countries get an education, but there are approximately 80 million children around the world still missing out. The Red Nose Day charity’s vision is a just world free from poverty. Log onto www.rednoseday.com.
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